Chili dinner for participants
and
their families on Sunday with awarding of top prizes.

Limited
to 12
teams fishing for Whitefish on the White River

Entry fee: $400 per team (4-person teams)

(cash or check only)

Call Secretary/Treasurer Boots
Campbell at 970-878-5677

or President Randy Forrest at 970-878-9987 for availability.

Come enjoy the weekend in Meeker
and the White River Valley.

This map will show you how to get to the Buford School House and White River Community
Association.

The one-room Buford School, 174-566 New Castle Buford Rd, Meeker, CO
81641, was built in 1902 and served local students for fifty years.
After the building stopped being used as a school in 1952, it was
renovated and converted into a community center. It continues to
serve as the headquarters of the White River Community Association
and hosts regular social gatherings.

Schoolhouse

The town of Buford lies twenty-two miles upstream fromMeekerin
the White River Valley. Ute Indians were driven out of the region as
a result of theMeeker Massacreof
1879, and whites arrived to settle the valley in the early 1880s.
Buford quickly took shape as a gathering spot for farmers and
ranchers along the White River and a post office opened there in
1890.

Settlers in the White River Valley established a school system in
1885. By 1890 they had organized School District 7, which includes
Buford. Evidence from school board meetings indicates that a
schoolhouse already existed in Buford in May 1890. This original
schoolhouse was a two-story building with a classroom on the first
floor and a room for dances and community events upstairs. Located
near the confluence of the White River and Big Beaver Creek, the
schoolhouse was damaged in a 1902 flood. After the flood, materials
from the damaged schoolhouse were used to build the existing
one-story, one-room schoolhouse on higher ground about half a mile
from the original site.

The building operated as a school for fifty years. In 1902 it had
fourteen students, reportedly the largest number in several years,
and in 1917 it had thirty-one students. In 1925 local residents
moved a nearby building and attached it as a small teacherage on the
west side of the schoolhouse. Built using exposed logs and furnished
with a small stove and bed, the teacherage provided the school’s
teacher with modest living quarters. At the same time, the main
building’s original exposed logs were covered up with planks on the
exterior and wallboards inside.

By the early 1950s, the Buford School had fewer than ten students.
The school closed in 1952, when Buford students started being bussed
to Meeker.

Community Center

When the Buford School closed, the land and building reverted to
Minnewa Bell, who owned the surrounding property. Bell and her late
husband, Alphonzo, had bought the land in 1928 and become active
members of the White River community. The Bells had significant
ranching and oil interests, and had also developed the Los Angeles
neighborhood of Bel Air. Their daughter, also named Minnewa, married
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s son Elliott in 1951.

In 1953, shortly after the Buford School closed, the younger Minnewa
Bell decided to renovate the building and donate it to the White
River community for use as a community center. She modernized the
building by adding a kitchen and restrooms in the old teacherage, a
stage at one end of the main room, and new oak floors. Eleanor
Roosevelt attended the building’s dedication as a community center
in September 1953, and Elliott Roosevelt served as master of
ceremonies.

Since 1953 the White River community has regularly used the
renovated Buford School building for meetings, and other social
gatherings. After existing informally for several years, the White
River Community Association was formally organized in 1961 and has
held regular meetings at the Buford School since then. The
association claimed the Buford School building in 1970, when it
realized that no formal deed for the property existed. The
association uses membership fees, donations, and volunteer efforts
to maintain the building.

With the help of local contributions and a grant from the State
Historical Fund, the building was renovated in 2008 and restored to
its 1950s appearance. It continues to be a prominent roadside
feature along the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway.

A Snapshot History of the White River CommunityAssociation

Dee Weiss, WRCA
Historian

The origin of the old schoolhouse on County Road 17,
now the White River Community Association, dates back to the year 1889.
During that year a school site was selected at the mouth of Big
Beaver Basin. A two-story schoolhouse was built that served as
both school and community gathering place. This property,
known to most of us as the Buckles Ranch, was approximately
seventeen miles up County Road 8, which is also the Flat Tops Trail
Scenic Byway.

Some time prior to 1920 a flood consumed the
two-story building and rendered the schoolhouse unusable. A
new site was chosen, materials were salvaged and the school was
rebuilt as a single story structure. Today it stands on this
same site on County Road 17, just south of Buford.

The school reopened in the mid to late 1920's and
continued as a school until 1948. At that time the school
closed due to lack of students.

Between 1930 and 1940 the kitchen was added for the
purpose of serving hot lunches to the children. This addition
was an old log cabin that had set on the far east end of the Buckles
Ranch.

Interesting to remember is that County Road 8, in
that area, was previously on the south side of the White River.
This placed the school on the main drag.

Today the old school house can be seen from the Flat
Tops Trail Scenic Byway in this picturesque location.

Over the years, there have been several owners of
the property. However, it was Minewa Bell Roosevelt (wife of
Elliott Roosevelt) who gave the school house to the White River
Community in 1953 in memory of her father, Alfonso Bell. Those
present at the dedication of the building were members of the
surrounding community and Elinor Roosevelt.

Although the school house was used for community
gatherings, it was not until 1961 that folks from the community
formed what we now call the "White River Community Association".
By-laws were adopted and Bob Buckles, Jack Holzberlein and Harry
Tucker who became the first officers. Members at that time came
from the area between Miller Creek and Trapper's Lake.

Over the years, the historic building has been kept
functional through the voluntary generosity of the club's members.
Though the building has weathered many storms, time and the elements
had taken their toll. It was completely renovated and restored to
its original 1950's state in 2008 thanks to a grant from the
Colorado State Historical Society and the generosity of residents in
the White River Valley